I join 15 other UC Berkeley professors endorsing the outrage expressed by Jewish student groups in the face of a persistent pattern of anti-Semitic statements, postings and re-tweets by UC Berkeley Lecturer Hatem Bazian.
This is not about the Arab-Israeli conflict, the situation facing Palestinians in the Middle East, or Zionism. This is about the stoking of anti-Semitism in its age-old form of demonizing Jews. Whether or not such expressions are protected by the First Amendment, they are clearly a violation of the principles of community and tolerance embraced by our campus.
We demand that Lecturer Bazian desist from associating any of his anti-Semitic postings with our university, directly or indirectly. We will not stop resisting such efforts to “normalize” anti-Semitic expressions, as if these are different in kind from other forms of ethnic, racial or religious prejudice. Anti-Semitism has no legitimate place in this university or our society.
George Breslauer
Berkeley
